IN BRIEF | Could Qantas and Emirates be cosying up to a closer relationship, including codesharing flights to Europe via Dubai?

It may seem like an unusual hookup, but as in politics, business can make for odd bedfellows – and according to a report in today's Financial Review, Emirates is courting the Red Roo to "revitalise abandoned plans for a code-sharing agreement, a deal that would anchor the Australian carrier’s flailing international arm and help it ring-fence the local corporate market."

Such a deal was abandoned in 2002 but AFR aviation correspondent Andrew Cleary writes that both Emirates president Tim Clark and Qantas CEO Alan Joyce are talking the kind of talk which could re-kindle the relationship.

“I look at the way Qantas is today, and I think they would benefit from us as we would benefit from them,”  Emirates' Clark says. “They’re huge in the domestic market. Logically there’s quite a lot of work that theoretically the two companies could do.”

For his part, Alan Joyce is "full of praise for Emirates", writes Cleary.

Full story: Emirates courts Qantas in tie-up revival

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